Zionism and Israel - Encyclopedic
Dictionary

Anti-Semitism

Anti-Semitism - (also Antisemitism ) - Jew Hatred. The word antisemitischwas probably
first used in 1860 by a Jew, Moritz Steinschneider, in the phrase "antisemitic prejudices" ("antisemitischen Vorurteile")
to criticize the racist ideas of Ernst Renan. "Semitic" is a term that describes a group of languages. The German polemicist Wilhelm Marr coined the German word
Antisemitismus in 1879 to give a
scientific aura to his ideology of hatred of Jews. Since the term in proper usage does not refer to all "Semites" and
there is no Semitic "race," the term "antisemitism" was suggested by Yehuda Bauer instead. The term Judeophobia, coined
originally by Leon Pinsker, is also used to describe hatred of
Jews. Arab Jew haters have tried to claim that they are
not "anti-Semites" since they themselves are Semites, and some Arabs use the term in that way. In this page we
use the term "anti-Semitism" only because it is the most popular accepted term and therefore it is most used when people
search for this topic.

Results of Anti-Semitism

There is, evidently, a rather infantile and distorted
notion about the results of anti-Semitic beliefs. That is, it is often believed
that prior to the ARIAL" >Holocaust,
anti-Semitism did not often result in physical harm to anyone, though Jews may
have suffered "indignities." For example, one
racist airhead
proposes
the following "explanation" of anti-Semitic imagery in German cathedrals:

Isn't the explanation clear? "In the middle ages,
Jews weren't so much respected as not. This is a cathedral that has been
around since then."

The lack of "respect" expressed itself in its milder
forms in depictions of Jews copulating with pigs, and in more outspoken forms it
expressed itself in massacres of Jews. Anti-Semitism was not a matter of lack of
"respect." It was not just a matter of people forgetting to doff their
caps and say hello to Jews. It resulted in repeated riots,
pogroms and massacres, in
which thousands were murdered, often the entire Jewish community of a town, and
many lost their homes and property. Jews were expelled from country after
country, forced to convert to Christianity, burned at the stake, hanged and
beheaded for imagined crimes. Prior to the Holocaust,
notable massacres of Jews took place during the
Crusades and the period of the
Black Death in Europe, and in the Ukraine during
the Russian civil war that followed the Soviet revolution (see
Russian Civil War Pogroms).

European anti-Semitism ultimately led to the Holocaust,
in which six million Jews were murdered. It is not pleasant to
contemplate this history, but it seems it is necessary to do so when the bloody
history of anti-Semitism is euphemized into "indignities" and lack of "respect."

Beliefs associated with Anti-Semitism

The following
(Anti-Semitic canards) can be used as guides to quickly identify anti-Semitic books, articles and Web sites, without regard to attitude toward
Israel or Zionism, even if the masquerade as "anti-Zionist" or "libertarian" or "liberal": Some of the background of
these items is given below. (See also Jew )

In general, any work that pretends to describe the characteristics or traits of a whole
people might be racist even if unintentionally so. Racism or bigotry directed at
Jews is anti-Semitism. Examples:

Any of the following are certain signs of anti-Semitic racism, which predate or are unrelated
to Israel:

Protocols of the Elders of Zion
- Any work that publicizes this forged document as true is anti-Semitic. Often the claim is made that the Protocols were
actually the resolution of the first Zionist congress in Basle, which was held in 1897, 8 years before the publication
of the protocols.

Blood
libel - Any publication that claims Jews use the blood of Christians to bake ritual cakes
or for other purposes is anti-Semitic
obviously. This absurd "medieval" superstition was widely held until quite
recently, and it is still believed by substantial numbers of Christians. It is
also very popular in the Arab world.

Holocaust revisionism (or Holocaust Denial)- Any work that claims the
Holocaust
did not occur or was exaggerated by Jews or "Zionists" or uses the phrase "Holocaust Myth" is anti-Semitic.
(see Holocaust Myth)

Exclusivism - The notion that Jews are an "Exclusivist" or clannish people
that shuts
out others predates Christianity and is a sure sign of anti-Semitism.

Jews are powerful and control the world -
Jews constitute a tiny fraction (less
than 2%) of the population of the United States, and a much smaller fraction of world population (12 million out of 6
billion -- about .002 = 2 thousandths). The only country that has a Jewish head of state is Israel. Nonetheless,
anti-Semites assert that Jews or "Zionists" control the world and assert their "pernicious influence" in mysterious
ways.

Talmud - Works that insist that the Talmud contains
laws that discriminate against non-Jews or teach Jews to cheat gentiles are anti-Semitic. Likewise works that insist
that Jews hold the Talmud to be more holy than the Old Testament or that all
Jews believe the
and follow the Talmud are anti-Semitic.
The claims are false.

Hesronot Shas (or
Chesronot Shas
) -Medieval censors banned portions of the Talmud which they believed contained Jewish libels against Jesus and the
Christian holy family, though these are not mentioned by name. The banned materials were circulated as a separate book
called
Hesronot Shas. Today they have been reintegrated into most editions of the Talmud, and the
Chesronot Shas is also freely available in Hebrew.
Anti-Semites continue to insist that that
Chesronot Shas is a secret Jewish book that outlines the Jewish plot against non-Jews, Jewish hatred of
Christianity and the Jewish plan to take over the world.

Kol Nidre - This prayer is said on the evening of the Jewish day of atonement (Yom
Kippur). It absolves Jews of personal vows that they made to God (only vows that do not involve other people). It
applies only to religious vows such as fasting or charity. It is deliberately misinterpreted by anti-Semites to be a
disavowal of all agreements and business contracts, allowing Jews to be dishonest. Mention of this fable as true in a
work or Web site is a certain sign it is anti-Semitic.

Mein Kampf and Nazism - Any Web site or work that disseminates Hitler's Mein Kampf
approvingly and or other Nazi works and memorabilia is obviously anti-Semitic.

Jewish conspiracies and Jewish "pernicious" influence -
work that asserts that there is a Jewish conspiracy or conspiracies behind world wars or other events is anti-Semitic.
Sometimes "Zionist" is used in place of "Jewish" but the reference
may be to events that occurred before the rise of modern
Zionism, such as the French revolution or to persons or institutions that have
no clear relation to Zionism.

Anti-Semitism versus Criticism of Israel

Anti-Semitism should not be confused with legitimate
criticism of Israel or Israeli policy. A person may be opposed to particular Israeli policies without being anti-Semitic.
It depends how the opposition is expressed, and whether the criticism is
reasonable. "Hamas, Hamas, Jews to the Gas" is not a "legitimate criticism."
"Israelis are worse than Nazis" is not a legitimate criticism, unless someone
can find evidence that Israelis are committing mass genocide.

When it is alleged that "Zionists" or the "Israel lobby" is all
powerful and controls the governments of the world, or that Israel committed
atrocities similar to those committed by the Nazis, it is obvious that the
motivation for the criticism is racist and unrelated to facts. Very often the
same persons or organizations or Web sites will be involved in Holocaust denial,
descriptions of the Talmud as
a dangerous document and other clear manifestations of anti-Semitism.

Anti-Semitism - a detailed
overview and Historical summary

This overview outlines the essential history and characteristics of anti-Semitism. A more
detailed discussion from a slightly different perspective is available at
Judeophobia or 'Antisemitism - a History.

Ancient Anti-Semitism

Anti-Jewish sentiments and theories were in evidence in
pagan culture. Apion of Alexandria (about 20 BCE -45 CE) alleged that Jews
killed non-Jewish children for ritual purposes. This fable was repeated as true by others.
and found its way into Christian belief as the Blood
libel A large anti-Jewish riot took place in Alexandria
about 38 years before the birth of Christ. Tacitus' views of the Jews are given in The
Histories 5.2-5 (see
here )
http://www.livius.org/am-ao/antisemitism/antisemitism-t.html). Jews are also reviled in the satires of Juvenal.

Following is a summary of ancient views of the Jews:

The Jews were descendants of lepers (Manetho) or victims of a wasting disease (Tacitus), who had been exiled by the Egyptians .

The Jews were rescued in the desert by a wild ass or other animal, and therefore worshipped the ass.

In the Symposium of Plutarch of Chaeronea (c.45-120),states that the object of the Jewish cult
was the pig.

The Jews did not worship the usual gods, like others did. Jews were sometimes considered to be responsible for the divine anger when disasters befell a community.

Jews are lascivious and "sexy" - this is found in Tacitus and elsewhere.

Jews were considered to be lazy, and therefore observed the Sabbath, according to the Fourteenth satire of
the Roman poet Juvenal (c.67-c.145).

The Jews had strange customs. The kashrut and other laws were the object of many jokes and superstitions.

Those who followed the Law of Moses were thought to ignore the law of the state in which they resided.

Jews were believed to be antisocial ("Exclusivist"). They separated from the other people living in the ancient
Mediterranean world. Perhaps this arose from separate dietary habits or failure to sacrifice to pagan gods, or perhaps
it was because pious Jews were had to live within walking distance of their synagogues.

The 'mutilation of genitals' (circumcision) was considered barbarous. In 132, the Roman emperor Hadrian
tried to root out this practice, which led to the Bar Kochba revolt.
Romans and Greeks felt the human form and particularly the phallus was sacred. This was confounded with homosexuality.
In particular, Hadrian was in love with a beautiful young man.

The emperors Tiberius and Claudius are said to have expelled the
Jews from Rome.

Philostratus (170-c.244) states that Jews are subhuman or different from
humanity:

For the Jews have long been in revolt [...] against humanity; and a race that has made its own a life apart and
irreconcilable, that cannot share the pleasures of the table
with the rest of mankind
nor join in their libations or prayers or sacrifices, are separated from ourselves by a greater gulf than divides us
from Susa or Bactra or the more distant Indies.

[Philostratus, Life of Apollonius of Tyana 5.33; ]

Christian anti-Semitism

According to early fathers of the church, "the Jews" were damned
because they had killed Christ.

Saint Hippolytus, 170-236, evidently was the first to pioneer the theme that the
Jews deserved punishment for
the killing of Jesus:

"Now then, incline thine ear to me and hear my words, and give heed, thou
Jew. Many a time does thou boast thyself, in that thou didst condemn Jesus
of Nazareth to death, and didst give him vinegar and gall to drink; and thou
dost vaunt thyself because of this. Come, therefore, and let us consider
together whether perchance thou dost boast unrighteously, O, Israel, and
whether thou small portion of vinegar and all has not brought down this
fearful threatening upon thee and whether this is not the cause of thy
present condition involved in these myriad of troubles."
(Hippolytus
Expository Treatise Against the Jews)

For this reason, according to Eusebius of Caesaria, Jews could not rebuild the Jerusalem
or the temple in Jerusalem, as their destruction had been visited upon them for killing the Messiah.

St Augustine of Hippo developed the idea that the Jews
must be kept alive, their sufferings serving witness to the correctness of
Christian doctrine:

The Jews who killed him [Jesus] and who refused to believe in him... were
dispersed all over the world... and thus by the evidence of their own
scriptures, they bear witness for us that we have not fabricated the prophecies
about Christ... It is in order to give this testimony which, in spite of
themselves, they supply for our benefit by their possession and preservation of
those books, that they themselves are dispersed among all nations, wherever the
Christian Church spreads... Hence the prophecy in the Book of Psalms: "..My God
has shown me concerning mine enemies, that You shall not slay them, lest they
should at last forget Your law: disperse them in Your might." Therefore God has
shown the Church in her enemies the Jews the grace of His compassion, since, as
says the apostle, "their offence is the salvation of the Gentiles." Romans 11:11
And therefore He has not slain them, that is, He has not let the knowledge that
they are Jews be lost in them, although they have been conquered by the Romans,
lest they should forget the law of God, and their testimony should be of no
avail in this matter of which we treat. But it was not enough that he should
say, "Slay them not, lest they should at last forget Your law," unless he had
also added, "Disperse them;" because if they had only been in their own land
with that testimony of the Scriptures, and not every where, certainly the Church
which is everywhere could not have had them as witnesses among all nations to
the prophecies which were sent before concerning Christ.. [City of God, 18:46]

In addition to bearing witness, the Jews must also be preserved, according to
Augustine, for their ultimate conversion to Christianity, which is their only
route to salvation.(Robert Chazan. The Jews of Medieval Western
Christendom, 1000-1500. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006, pp. 36-37 )

The Catholic Church insisted that it must protect
the Jews, elaborating on the doctrines of Aquinas. Yet, on the other hand,
if the suffering of the Jews was deserved
punishment from God, it was a short step to believing it was a holy duty to help
God out and make the Jews suffer.

The thesis of the collective guilt of "the Jews" inherently anti-Jewish and
anti-Semitic. It formed the basis for a cultural norm that treated the Jews as a
single legal and moral person. If all the Jews, for all eternity were guilty
because some Jews had allegedly crucified Jesus, then all "the Jews" could
likewise be collectively guilty of poisoning wells, or supporting this or that
political party or any other imagined or real misdeed.

The Crusades became first major occasion for wholesale slaughter of Jews in Germany and elsewhere despite the attempt of the Catholic church to
moderate the violence. During the Crusades and in other anti-Jewish riots, whole Jewish towns and Jewish quarters were
burned and people were thrown from the walls of cities. Often Jews were rounded up in the synagogue and burned
alive. This treatment has been characterized euphemistically by some modern Christian writers as "indignities suffered
by the Jews."

The record of early persecutions is surely incomplete, but that does not mean
there was no anti-Semitism in the early years of Christianity, other than the
theological judgments of Church fathers. There was violence and discrimination.
It is certain that synagogues were burned from the 4th century. Jews were
expelled from a number of places:

In the Middle ages, Jews were periodically expelled from European countries and their
property was confiscated. For example, Jews were expelled from Spain more than once.
The time was in 1492 (followed in 1496-7 by
expulsion from Portugal). They had been expelled from England under Edward I (1290) and France under Philip Augustus (1182),
and previously from other places. Philip readmitted
the Jews in 1198, carefully regulating their banking business for his benefit. In Spain,
Jews were forced to convert,
often on pain of death, over a very long period, and then under Ferdinand and Isabella, the "conversos" were subject to
an Inquisition and forced to admit that they were secret
Jews and heretics under torture. The motivations for the Inquisition were Christian piety, consolidation of the rule to the state as against noblemen who either were conversos
or were supported by them, and confiscation of converso lands and wealth. Inquisitors were canonized as saints by
the Roman Catholic Church as late as the 19th century.

Forced Conversions - In addition to conversions effected in Spain under the the threat
of expulsion or death, Jews were sometimes forced to attend periodic sermons intended to convert them.

Disputations - A characteristic persecution consisting of holding a public debate
between a Christian priest or church official and a Rabbi or leader of the Jewish community. The debate was meant to
"prove" the correctness of the Christian faith. At the conclusion of the debate,
Jews were killed or subjected to mass
conversion, or Jewish books such as the Talmud were burned (see illustration at right).

Replacement Theology - The Old Testament prophets stated that Israel were the chosen
people of God who would be rescued and restored to the holy land. Church fathers devised replacement theology to
reinterpret references to "Israel" as the Christians and the Christian Church. This notion was a central tenet of
anti-Jewish thinking in the Middle Ages. The emperor Ferdinand of Spain believed that he was destined to bring about the
restoration of "Israel" which required expulsion of the Jews from Spain, and ultimately a crusade to reconquer the holy
land. Replacement theology has been revived and popularized by "anti-Zionists" such as the Reverend Sizer.

Medieval Superstitions about Jews - Some of the typical medieval superstitions about
Jews included:

Jews poison the wells - This libel was supposed to be the origin of plagues and
particularly the black plague.

Jews desecrate the host - Spoilage of communion wafers, which turned red from a
fungus, was attributed to Jews who had dipped the wafers in the blood of slaughtered Christians.

Jews kill Christians in secret - For example, explaining the reasons for expulsion of
the Jews from France, the French monk Rigord (d. 1205) related that [Philip Augustus had often heard] that the
Jews who
dwelt in Paris were wont every year on Easter day, or during the sacred week of our Lord's Passion, to go down secretly
into underground vaults and kill a Christian as a sort of sacrifice in contempt of the Christian religion. For a long
time they had persisted in this wickedness, inspired by the devil, and in Philip's father's time, many of them had been
seized and burned with fire.

The blood libel
- A variation of the secret killings theme, the blood libel insists that Jews
kill pre-pubertal Christian boys in order to prepare the unleavened bread
(Matzoth) of the Passover. It was possibly born in 1144 in England, where a
Christian mob accused Jews of murdering the boy William of Norwich during
Easter. This story was related in The Life and Miracles of St William of
Norwich, by Thomas of Monmouth, a Norwich monk. This story, did not claim that the
Jews used the blood to bake
unleavened bread, but rather claimed the boy had been crucified. Nonetheless, it is often considered to be the first
"blood libel." Others soon followed, including Simon of Trent and
Andreas of Rinn. In one variant, the child was not killed but rather bled to death.

In Spain in 1490 or 1491 Spanish inquisitors forced
Jews to confess that they had killed a Christian
child, one Christopher of Toledo or Christopher of La Guardia, later made a saint of the Roman Catholic church and
venerated as Santo Nino de La Guardia. No missing child was ever reported that would correspond to this child and
corroborate the tale. The tale was elicited from the victims by the holy inquisitors under torture, by suggestion (for
example, "Confess that on this date you did do X") it is likely that the blood libel was well known by this time.

The
Talmud- The Talmud supposedly contained conspiratorial formulae, imprecations against Jesus and Mary and injunctions to
cheat and discriminate against non-Jews. Therefore it would often banned or censored.

Physiognomy - In addition to characteristic large noses and stooped postures,
Jews in
the Middle Ages may be shown with tails and horns, similar to the devil.

Anti-Semitism of the Catholic Church

The attitude of the Catholic church regarding Jews
was equivocal. In some cases, the Church intervened to grant Jews protection or
to decry mass murders such as those that occurred during the Crusades.

At other times, it pursued forced conversions and
promulgated various encyclicals and bulls ordering the examination of Jewish
books of Law, burning of the Talmud and restriction or expulsion of the Jews.
Though the origins of there atrocities were in the Middle Ages, the practices
continued and were actually renewed after the end of the Middle Ages during the
counter reformation.

Since the promulgation of the code of Justinian, the
position of the Jews in Rome had been that of an inferior race held in suspicion
andexcluded from important functions of the city. They could not expect civil
employment and the law declared them forever disqualified.

Throughout the Christian world ecclesiastical
authority severely excluded Jews from the Christian community. In France the
councils were unanimous; Vannes 465, Agde 506, Epaone, of the diocese of
Vienna 517, all forbade the marriage of Christians with Jews; the second council
of Orleans likewise prohibited marriages between Christians and Jews; that of
Clermont in 535 excluded Jews from the magistracy; that of Macon 581 which
deprived them of collecting taxes; that of Paris 615 confirmed at Reims, which
declared them disqualified for all civil employment.

The constant humiliation of the Jews was carried out
in symbolic ways as well as in material injury. In the Middle Ages, when the
Popes received the homage of the delegates of the Roman-Jewish community
on the day of their coronation, they traditionally answered: "Legum Probo, sed
improbo gentium"("I approve of the law but I disapprove of the race.")

Later, when the Rabbis of Rome were forced to offer a
magnificent copy of the Pentateuch, the Pope would answer: "Confirmamus
sed non consentimus."("We ratify but we do not consent.")

Much of this history has been
deliberately repressed. Relevant documents include:

Bull Cum Nimis Absurdum - An
example of European anti-Semitism in the renaissance period, this Papal decree
of 1555.
established the
ghetto of Rome as well as re-imposing restrictions on Jewish
dress and trades that had been enforced intermittently.

Caeca et Obdurata Hebraeorum perfidia - (Blind and
obdurate is the perfidy of the Hebrews) of February 25, 1593, expelling the
Jews from all Papal states and territories other than Rome, Ancona and
Avignon, and in particular from Bologna and several other cities.

Cum Hebraeorum malitia (or Quum Habraeorum malitia) of 1592 or 1593, a Bull of
Pope Clement VIII, decreeing that all copies of the
Talmud and Kabbalah
were to be turned over to the inquisition for burning. It was
evidently soon rescinded or superseded however.

Bull
Beatus Andreas
- In 1755 Gregory XIV examined a request for canonization of
Andreas of Rinn, a child supposedly murdered by Jews. Centuries after the
end of the Middle Ages, the bull unequivocally supported the claim that Jews
perform ritual murders of Christians.

Anti-Semitism in European Culture

Anti-Semitic stereotypes were fed by Christian
beliefs and popular folklore also fed Christian anti-Semitism. Hatred of Jews
became a staple of European culture that was autonomous of religion and
eventually, in the twentieth century, became a scourge within the Catholic
church that has been combated with only modest success by successive Popes since
Vatican II. One cultural motif that repeated itself was the Judensau - a pig
that was somehow connected with Judaism, along with persistent beliefs in Jewish
sex perversions, lasciviousness of "Jewesses" and other pornographic themes.

The cultural motif of the Judensau was by no means limited to the
Middle ages, as it appeared throughout the 19th century and was revived under
Nazism. The Frankfurt engraving below expresses two dominant themes.
Its upper panel depicts the child martyr Simon of Trent,
subject of a blood libel
case. The lower panel shows a Judensau.
The Devil is looking on while
at left, a Jewish woman is having sex with a goat, and in the foreground, two
Jews are having sexual communion with a pig, while a Jewish child is suckling
from the same pig. Similar themes are found both in German books and in
cathedral and Protestant Church decorations and bridges in Germany.

Modern European Anti-Semitism

Anti-Semitism was evident in the enlightenment
writings of Voltaire and others. Edward Gibbon, who wrote the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, stated in a footnote
quoting Dio Cassus that Jews had rioted and engaged in cannibalism. Like many enlightenment figures, one of his complaints against
the Christian religion was that it was derived from Judaism. Modern anti-Semitism is associated with racial theories of
19th century Germany, who insisted that Jews are a separate and inferior race. Adolf Stoecker, Wilhelm Marr, Richard
Wagner and Heinrich von Treitchke were prominent anti-Semites This notion probably developed as a reaction
to assimilation of Jews who had converted to Christianity. Popular figures such as Mendelsohn, Heine and others
who were converted Jews attracted the envy and suspicion of fellow Germans. Russia became vigorously anti-Semitic.
Pogroms (anti-Jewish riots) occurred in a number of cities and towns in the 1880s. These were ignored or encouraged by
authorities. The Tsarist secret police forged the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a document that claims to outline the
secret plan of the Jews to conquer the world.

In France, hopes that the enlightenment had put an end to race prejudice were dashed by the Dreyfus Affair (beginning in 1894). Dreyfus, a Jew, was accused of treason against France. The affair was
accompanied by a large anti-Semitic outcry, claiming that Jews are not loyal to the countries in which they live.
Dreyfus was eventually exonerated thanks to Emile Zola and others.

Elsewhere in Europe and North American exclusion of
Jews and denigration of Jews according to
standard stereotypes was considered acceptable in polite society. Novelists such as Dorothy Sayers, Agatha Christie and
F. Scott Fitzgerald portrayed Jewish characters who were shifty gangsters or loud, pushy and gauche. Somerset Maugham
wrote a diary as a young man that is filled with imaginative descriptions of dishonest and seedy looking Jewish men and
lascivious "Jewesses." Strangely, in Britain these sentiments coexisted with growing sentiment for restoration of the
Jews (see
Daniel Deronda ). In the USA, the industrialist Henry Ford published the forged Protocols of the Elders of Zion in
his Dearborn Independent newspaper, and kindled the myth that they were true. Father Coughlin, the popular Captain
Charles Lindbergh and others agitated against Jews and in favor of Nazi Germany in the period prior to WW II.

Common European social restrictions on Jews included forcing them to live in special areas
(Pale of Settlement in Russia or
ghettos before the
late19th century), special taxes on Jews, censorship or banning of
Jewish law books, quotas on entrance to university allowing only a limited number of
Jews ("numerous clausus"), barring
from employment in government positions or universities, barring of Jews from social clubs and associations and banning
Jews from residence in "exclusive" neighborhoods.

Communism was officially non-racist, but in fact, persecution of the
Jews as "rootless
cosmopolitans" or "Zionists" was initiated during several periods under Stalin, and reincarnated as "anti-Zionism" under
his successors.

European anti-Semitism seemed to have culminated in the Nazi
Holocaust. The Nazis attempted to kill the Jewish population
of Europe, and managed to kill about 6 million of them.

After WW II, the horror of the Holocaust produced a revulsion against anti-Semitism in polite society in Europe, except
for the USSR, but it seems to be slowly returning, either directly or under the guise of thinly veiled "anti-Zionism.

Modern Anti-Semitism Surveys

Substantial numbers of people in seven European countries agreed with these
statements:

• Jews are more loyal to Israel than to this
country.
• Jews have too much power in the business world.
• Jews have too much power in international financial markets.
• Jews still talk too much about what happened to them in the Holocaust.

In some countries there were were clear majorities who agree with anti-Semitic
beliefs. For example, for the question, "Jews have too much power in the
business world:"

Austria – 36%, down from 37% in 2007France – 33%, up from 28% in 2007Germany – 21%, unchanged from 2007Hungary – 67%, up from 60% in 2007Poland – 55%, up from 49% in 2007Spain – 56%, up from 53% in 2007The United Kingdom – 15%, down from 22% in 2007

Arab/Muslim anti-Semitism

Considering the treatment of Jews in European countries, the experience
of Jews under Islamic rule was relatively benign, , giving rise to the idea that Muslims,
Jews and Christians
lived in perfect harmony. That is far from the truth, but it is true of the best of times and the best rulers in Islam,
such as the Ottoman Sultans who invited Jews to settle in Turkey after they had been expelled by Spanish and Portuguese
inquisitions, or to settle in communities such as Tiberias and Safed in the holy land.

The status of Jews under Islam, was variable, depending on the time and place. The Quran has mixed injunctions about
Jews and Christians, variously praising them as people of the book and damning them as hypocrites because they didn't
follow Muhammad. Early in his career, Muhammad attacked and destroyed the Jewish town of
Khaybar, and the cry "Khaybar,
Khaybar" became the rallying cry of Muslim anti-Jewish riots. In all cases,
Jews, like Christians were formally
considered to be protected second class citizens in Muslim countries. Only Muslims could fight in wars, and therefore
Jews and Christians could not receive land grants in conquered countries as knights, which was a major source of wealth
and social status. Jews and Christians paid a special tax and usually had to wear special clothing.
Jews were confined
to a "Mellah" (ghetto) in certain places. In many countries such as Morocco and Yemen, it was customary for little
children to throw rocks at Jews and curse them. At times Jews were forced to convert to Islam or
be expelled as under the
Al-Mohad dynasty in Morocco, beginning in 1146.

Jews were generally despised as wily but weak people with no courage. For example, following
the revolution of the Young Turks in Ottoman Turkey, Jews could serve in the army. A Turkish joke related that at great
length it was possible to recruit and train a Jewish unit. They were then sent to the front. They returned quickly
however, because they had been scared by a gang of bandits that they met on the road. A Muslim hadith (legend associated
with the Qur'an) relates that the end of days, Muslims will kill all the
Jews, who will try to hide in trees. Only
one sort of tree will agree to hide them however. This hadith is repeated in the
charter of the Hamas organization, but it is of venerable origin.

In modern times, beginning in the 19th century, Muslim and Arab countries adopted European
anti-Semitic themes such as the blood libel (an incident occurred in Damascus in 1840) and later, the Protocols of the
Elders of Zion, publication of Mein Kampf and other trappings of European Christian anti-Semitism such as Holocaust
denial. Cartoons in Arab and Muslim journals regularly show Jews as having the characteristic "traits" of anti-Semitic
portrayals such as bent posture, beady eyes and hooked noses.

Anti-Semitic Jews - Apostate Jews and some others have often made a career of adopting
and disseminating anti-Semitic opinions, libels on the Talmud and "revelations" about supposed secret and obnoxious
Jewish customs. As there are anti-American Americans and Christians who denounced Christianity, there is no logical
reason why there should not be anti-Semitic Jews. The mere fact that they are or were
Jews lends a false authority to
their claims. In some cases, the person in question is not really Jewish.

Anti-Zionism and Anti-Semitism - Anti-Zionism is opposition to the existence of the
state of Israel or the idea of reconstituting a Jewish homeland. It is not necessarily anti-Semitic, but it usually is
so, especially when the complaints against Israel and "Zionists" include controlling the government of the United
States, conspiring to take over the world, starting world wars etc. (see above for characteristics of anti-Semitic Web
sites). Anti-Zionism is usually based on the premise that Jews are inferior or different from any other group of people,
and therefore do not have the right to declare themselves a nation or people. See article by
John L. Strawson
for a discussion of anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism).

Anti-Zionist Web sites -
"Anti-Zionist" Web sites such as abbc.com, ziopedia, radio-islam, serendipity and rense.com regularly feature articles
about the Protocols of the Elders of Zion or Hitler's Mein Kampf, libels against the Talmud and Holocaust denial. Other
sites, such as Stormfront, feature the same materials without the protective guise of "anti-Zionism"

Expulsion of the Jews from England, the first of the great general expulsions of the Middle
Ages.

1298-99

Rindfleisch Massacres
-Massacre of thousands of Jews in 146 localities in southern and central Germany led by the
German knight Rindfleisch.

1306-20

Pastoureaux ("Shepherds"), participants of the second Crusade in France against the Muslims in
Spain, attack the Jews of 120 localities in southwest France.

1321-22

Expulsion from the kingdom of France.

1336-39

Persecutions against Jews in Franconia and Alsace led by lawless German bands, the
Armleder.

1348-50

Black Death
Massacres which spread throughout Spain, France, Germany and Austria, as a result
of accusations that the Jews had caused the death of Christians by poisoning the wells and other water sources.

A series of "temporary laws" confirmed by Czar Alexander III of Russia in May, 1882 ("May
Laws"), which adopted a systematic policy of discrimination, with the object of removing the
Jews from their economic
and public positions.

Wannsee Conference - Conference in Wannsee, Berlin, to carry out the "Final Solution" (Jan. 20, 1942). Beginning of
mass transports of Jews of Belgium and Holland to Auschwitz. Massacres in occupied Russia continue. Death camps of
Auschwitz, Majdanek and Treblinka begin to function at full capacity: transports from ghettos to death camps. Sobibor
extermination camp established.

1943

Germany declared Judenrein. Transports of Jews from all over Europe to death camps.
Warsaw Ghetto
Uprising and final liquidation of the Warsaw ghetto (May 16, 1943). Annihilation of most of the ghettos. Transport of Italian
Jews to
death camps.

'H - ('het) a guttural sound
made deep in the throat. To Western ears it may sound like the "ch" in loch. In Arabic there are several letters that
have similar sounds. Examples: 'hanukah, 'hamas, 'haredi. Formerly, this sound was often represented by ch,
especially in German transliterations of Hebrew. Thus, 'hanukah is often rendered as Chanuka for example.

ch - (chaf) a sound like "ch"
in loch or the Russian Kh as in Khruschev or German Ach, made by putting the tongue against
the roof of the mouth. In Hebrew, a chaf can never occur at the beginning of a word. At the beginning of a word, it has a dot in it and is pronounced "Kaf."

u - usually between oo as in spoon
and u as in put.

a- sounded like a in arm

ah- used to represent an a sound made by
the letter hey at the end of a word. It is the same sound as a. Haganah and Hagana are alternative
acceptable transliterations.

'a-notation used for Hebrew and Arabic
ayin, a guttural ah sound.

o - close to the French o as in homme.

th - (taf without a dot) - Th was
formerly used to transliterate the Hebrew taf sound for taf without a dot. However in modern Hebrew there
is no detectable difference in standard pronunciation of taf with or without a dot, and therefore Histadruth and
Histadrut, Rehovoth and Rehovot are all acceptable.

q- (quf) - In transliteration of
Hebrew and Arabic, it is best to consistently use the letter q for the quf, to avoid confusion with similar sounding
words that might be spelled with a kaf, which should be transliterated as K. Thus, Hatiqva is preferable to Hatikva for
example.